Ken Levy's Blog

Moving on to something new, but staying close

MSDNArchive — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 02:48:36 GMT

After working at Microsoft for over 7 years as an employee and almost 5 years before that as a contractor/vendor, I’ve decided it’s time for me to do become independent and start my own company. My official last day at Microsoft is July 18^th. I’ve enjoyed all the years working at Microsoft since the early 90s, especially with great people making many friends along the way.

I will continue be involved with Microsoft plus other technologies, attending various developer/technology events, and being active in the communities in general. I’m very enthusiastic about the developer community growth around extending Visual Studio and the plans Microsoft has around upcoming versions of the VS SDK as well as various community member projects recently started. I plan to attend the VSX Developers Conference this September in Redmond and I’m looking forward to talking to many VSX developers and VSIP members there.

My new company is called MashupX, new blog is at http://mashupx.com/blog/, and new email address is klevy@mashupx.com. I will be blogging about my startup company activities, travel, gadgets, movies, and technology in general. I’ll post more details on my blog later this month, so check there soon for more details.

VSX Community Letter for April 2008 posted on VSX Team blog

MSDNArchive — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:57:29 GMT

Just posted the VSX Community Letter for April 2008.

Channel 9: Sean O'Driscoll talks about Microsoft MVPs and MVP program

MSDNArchive — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 01:29:31 GMT

Video posted today: Channel 9: Sean O'Driscoll: General Manager for Community Support and the MVP Program (36 minutes).

Last year I had this idea to do a video interview of Sean O'Driscoll, a General Manager for Community Support and the MVP Program at Microsoft, to discuss the history, current state, and future of Microsoft MVPs and the MVP Program. This interview is a discussion only, no demos, so downloading the WMA or MP3 audio file is a good option to listen.

Being an MVP myself for much of the 1990s before joining Microsoft as well as being apart of all MVP Summits that Microsoft has hosted, the discussion with Sean was educational and nostalgic. Sean and I also talk at length about communities in general and how passion for a product or service is usually the driving factor behind any type of community. The annual MVP Summit is occurring here in Seattle and Redmond next week with around 2,000 MVP attending from around the world.

More about Sean... For the past 5 years, Sean has been responsible for the MVP Program which now includes about 4,000 MVPs worldwide. Microsoft MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals) are a select group of experts representing technology's best and brightest people who share a commitment to community. Sean will be leaving Microsoft later this year, see his blog post about it from last December: 15 years at Microsoft, coming to an end…mixed emotions.

For more information about the MVP Program, refer to http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/.

Using Ctrl+F1 in Office 2007 to hide/show ribbon toolbar

MSDNArchive — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 01:19:47 GMT

I recently found a useful hotkey tip using various applications in Office 2007. Just toggle Ctrl+F1 to show and hide the ribbon toolbar area. This is similar to the F11 hotkey in Internet Explorer to toggle IE full screen view on and off.

VSX Community Letter for March 2008 posted on VSX Team blog

MSDNArchive — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:30:00 GMT

Just posted the VSX Community Letter for March 2008.

VSX Community Letter for February 2008 posted on VSX Team blog

MSDNArchive — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 05:55:00 GMT

Reminder about the VSX Community Letter for February 2008.

VSX Community Letter for January 2008 posted on VSX Team blog

MSDNArchive — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 08:25:00 GMT

Just posted the VSX Community Letter for January 2008.

VSX Community Letter for October 2007 posted on VSX Team blog

MSDNArchive — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 11:20:00 GMT

Just posted the VSX Community Letter for October 2007.

VSX Community Letter for September 2007 posted on VSX Team blog

MSDNArchive — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:27:00 GMT

Just posted the VSX Community Letter for September 2007.

VSX Community Letter for August 2007 posted on VSX Team blog

MSDNArchive — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:23:00 GMT

Just posted the VSX Community Letter for August 2007.